Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
OllieSuave-007
This is quite a thrilling little fairytale, where two children stumble upon a village of gnomes in the woods. While they are friendly to the children, a witch suddenly arrives and kidnaps them. The scenes where the children attempt to escape the witch's lair were quite exciting, as were the magic spells the witch casted. But, the gnomes' attempts to rescue the children and shower the witch with arrows were cheesy. You could hardly make out the witch's dialog, whom is voiced by the actress that eventually voices the Evil Queen in Show White and the Seven Dwarfs.Overall, not a bad tale. Reminds you a little of those full-length animated movies from Disney.Grade B-
Hot 888 Mama
. . . with this ironically portentous brief cartoon, BABES IN THE WOODS. The future Disney MegaCorp casts ITSELF as an evil, ugly witch, possessing a job-killing potion capable of turning the liveliest kid or cat into stone (as in "stone-cold dead"). This, of course, is exactly what Disney soon did to the entirety of Western Civilization, bribing the U.S. Congress to extend standard 28-year copyrights Ad Infinitum. This insures that Disney's Witching Hours will NEVER end; that Steamboat Willie and friends NEVER will be allowed to breathe free in the Public Domain. As an unintended and ever more grotesque side effect from this misuse of Disney's ill-gotten Wealth, all the Beloved Creatures of Real Artists--such as Gatsby, Bugs Bunny, Gilroy, Porky Pig, and Bogart--are similarly condemned to the static single dimension of Disney's Stone Cold Dungeons. The solution to this sorry state of affairs is embedded in the conclusion of BABES IN THE WOODS. Just as the tiny bearded gnomes liberate all the kiddies frozen by the Disney Witch, it is up to We the 99 Per Center Little People to make sure that imprisoned Disney Characters such as Goofer and Bluto FINALLY see the light of day by tagging them across America's municipal buildings and streets as often as possible!
Robert Reynolds
This is an early color short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:This looks to be an early dry run to see if adaptations of fairy tales were possible. There are echoes of the future in here, most specifically Snow White. The witch in particular resonates with the feature film to come five years later.The story is a spin on Hansel and Gretal. It would be much better but for a curious decision (and I can't imagine it was an accident, as only the children have this problem). Their eyes are purely pupils, smallish black dots, rather than proper eyes, as with the gnomes and the witch. It gives them dead eyes and hence little personality, which is a mistake when they are technically the leads. It's a pity, because the good animation and other qualities are lessened a bit by dead eyed leads with no character.The short starts with the two leads finding a group of gnomes and the opening is cute is familiar. The entry of the witch on her broom ends the fun and the gnomes wisely scramble for the safety of their tree homes. Hansel and Gretal are too large to get in and foolishly get on the witch's broom for a ride. She shows them a cottage made of candy and gingerbread and the obvious happens, with a change.Instead of eating children, the witch changes them into bugs or animals. She changes the boy into a spider, turns a cat into stone, but is interrupted by the gnomes on a rescue mission.There follows a typical fight sequence found in a lot of Disney shorts from the early 1930s. There's a nice touch with the gnomes riding geese and throwing pumpkins which appear as if by magic in their hands. They basically rout the witch while the boy and the girl restore the other children and ultimately turn the witch into stone.It's scary and charming by turns, apart from the one glaring flaw. The short is available on the Disney Treasures Silly Symphonies DVD set and it and the set are worth finding. Recommended
jlgrosbeck
An early attempt at the Brothers Grimm world to which Disney would soon lay claim. But more awkward and with much sloppier animation. The Hansel and Gretel stand-ins ("whose names I don't know") are shockingly devoid of personality - they've got weird little blank faces that even I could draw. When the boy is turned into a spider, it's both icky and somewhat of a relief, because at least now he's got some personality. Turned into a spider, not fattened up to be eaten. This witch just imprisons and transforms kids...the standard cannibalism was apparently too edgy.The whole thing is also dated by the utterly inane song.Is it just me, or is there something unearthly and horrific about the witch's final moments, after which the ring of laughing children just seems bizarre? And is the fact that the rock's 'arms' seem to have disappeared with the passage of time suppose to be a hint that this is all just the stuff of myth? So many questions.
